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depicting Juvenal and Persius , from a volume translated by John Dryden in 1711.]] The Satires are a collection of Satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE. Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided between five Books ; all are in the Roman genre of Satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a wide-ranging discussion of society and social '' Mores '' in Dactylic Hexameter . Lucilius – the acknowledged originator of Roman Satire in the form practiced by Juvenal - experimented with other meters before settling on dactylic hexameter. These five books were discrete works, and there is no reason to assume that they were published at the same time or that they are identical in theme or in approach. The poems are not individually titled, but translators have often added titles for the convenience of readers.
Roman ''Satura'' was a formal literary genre rather than being simply clever, humorous critique in no particular format. Juvenal wrote within this tradition, which originated with Lucilius and included the Sermones of Horace and the Satires of Persius . There were other authors who wrote within the genre, but only the texts of these three have been extensive preserved. In a tone and manner ranging from irony to apparent rage, Juvenal criticizes the actions and beliefs of many of his contemporaries, providing insight more into value systems and questions of morality and less into the realities of Roman life. The author employs outright obscenity less frequently than Martial or Catullus , but the scenes painted in his text are no less vivid or lurid for that discretion. The author makes constant allusion to history and myth as a source of object lessons or exemplars of particular vices and virtues. Coupled with his dense and elliptical Latin, these tangential references indicate that the intended reader of the ''Satires'' was highly educated. The intended reader was expected to understand these references without recourse to footnotes or reference works on Greco-Roman myth and history. The ''Satires'' are sophisticated literary works for a sophisticated reader. In all probability, the rhetorical content of the ''Satires'' would have further restricted their audience largely to those prepared to assent - to some degree - to the apparent Xenophobia , Misogyny , and other modes of Intolerance within the text. The ''Satires'' are concerned with perceived threats to the social continuity of the Roman upper classes: social-climbing foreigners, unfaithful women, and the excesses of their own class. Delimited by these factors, the intended audience of the ''Satires'' constituted a subset of the Roman elite, primarily adult males of a more conservative social stance. It is imperative that the topic of the ''Satires'' be approached from a perspective of social relativism; merely labeling the statements and themes of the author is of little value toward a greater understanding of the Roman world of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE: e.g. the charge of homophobia is all too facile, but what does this term mean for a society that did not think in terms of the categories heterosexual and homosexual? SYNOPSIS OF THE ''SATIRES'' Book I Satire I: It is Hard not to Write Satire : It is hard not to write Satire. For who is so tolerant : of the unjust City, so steeled, that he can restrain himself, : when… : ''difficile est saturam non scribere. nam quis iniquae'' : ''tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus, ut teneat se,'' : ''… cum …'' : (1.30-32) 171 lines. This so-called "Programmatic Satire", lays out for the reader a catalogue of ills and annoyances that prompt the narrator to write Satire: eunuchs getting married, elite women performing in a beast hunt, the dregs of society suddenly becoming wealthy, ''et cetera''. To the extent that it is programmatic, this satire concerns the first book rather than the satires of the other four known books. The narrator explicitly marks the writings of Lucilius as the model for his book of poems (lines 19-20), although he claims that to attack the living as his model did incurs great risk (lines 165-67). In sum, the narrator contends that Roman society is no longer functioning to ensure social justice – as he conceives it: : Dare something worthy of exile to tiny Gyara and death row, : if you want to be anything at all. Probity is praised – and it shivers in the street. : ''aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum,'' : ''si vis esse aliquid. probitas laudatur et alget.'' : (1.73-74)
Satire II: Hypocrites are Intolerable : I get an itch to run off beyond the Russians and the frozen sea, : every time those men who pretend to be old-time paragons of virtue : and live an orgy, dare to spout something about morals. : ''Vltra Sauromatas fugere hinc libet et glacialem'' : ''Oceanum, quotiens aliquid de moribus audent'' : ''qui Curios simulant et Bacchanalia uiuunt '' : (2.1-3) 170 lines. The narrator claims to want to flee civilization (i.e. ''Roma'') to beyond the world’s end when confronted by moral hypocrisy. Although the broad theme of this poem is the process of gender inversion, it would be an error to take is as simple invective against pathic men. Juvenal is concerned with gender deviance
Satire III: There is no Room in ''Roma'' for a Roman : What could I do in Roma? I don’t know how to lie; : If a book is bad, I am unable to praise it and ask for one; : I don’t understand the motions of the stars – I am neither willing : nor able to predict the death of someone’s father; I never inspected the guts : of frogs; other men know all about ferrying what the adulterers send to brides; : nobody is going to be a thief with me as his accomplice, : and that right there is why I’m going in no governor’s entourage : – I’m like a cripple, a useless body with a dead right hand. : ''quid Romae faciam? mentiri nescio; librum,'' : ''si malus est, nequeo laudare et poscere; motus'' : ''astrorum ignoro; funus promittere patris'' : ''nec uolo nec possum; ranarum uiscera numquam'' : ''inspexi; ferre ad nuptam quae mittit adulter,'' : ''quae mandat, norunt alii; me nemo ministro'' : ''fur erit, atque ideo nulli comes exeo tamquam'' : ''mancus et extinctae corpus non utile dextrae.'' : (3.41-48) 322 lines. In the place where Numa Pompilius (the legendary second king of Rome) received a nymph’s advice on creating Roman law, the narrator has a final conversation with his Roman friend Umbricius, who is emigrating to Cumae. Umbricius claims that slick and immoral foreigners have shut a real Roman out of all opportunity to prosper. Only the first 20 lines are in the voice of the narrator; the remainder of the poem is cast as the words of Umbricius. In 1738, Samuel Johnson was inspired by this text to write his "London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal". The archetypal question of whether the urban life of hectic ambition is to be preferred to the pastoral fantasy seemingly offered by retreat to the country in posed by the narrator, as in the following passage of parody: : As you love your hoe, live as the steward of your garden, : whence you may lay out a feast for one hundred Pythagoreans. : It is meaningful – in whatever place, in whatever backwater - : to have made oneself the master of a single lizard. : ''uiue bidentis amans et culti uilicus horti'' : ''unde epulum possis centum dare Pythagoreis.'' : ''est aliquid, quocumque loco, quocumque recessu,'' : ''unius sese dominum fecisse lacertae.'' : (3.228-31)
Satire IV: The Emperor’s Fish : Back when the last Flavian was ripping up a half-dead : world – and Roma slaved for a bald Nero – : in sight of the shrine of Venus, which Doric Ancona upholds, : the marvelous expanse of an Adriatic turbot appeared, : and filled the nets; … : ''cum iam semianimum laceraret Flauius orbem'' : ''ultimus et caluo seruiret Roma Neroni,'' : ''incidit Hadriaci spatium admirabile rhombi'' : ''ante domum Veneris, quam Dorica sustinet Ancon,'' : ''impleuitque sinus; …'' : (4.37-41) 154 lines. The narrator makes the emperor Domitian and his court the objects of his ridicule in this mock-epic tale of a fish so prodigious that it was fit for the emperor alone. The council of state is called to deal with the crisis of how to cook it. The main themes of this poem are the corruption and incompetence of sycophantic courtiers and the inability or unwillingness to speak truth to power. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's motto, ''vitam impendere vero'' (to pay his life for the truth) is taken from the passage below, a description of the qualifications of an imperial courtier in the reign of Domitian: : … nor was he the sort of citizen who was able to offer : up the free words of his heart and stake his life on the truth. : That is how he saw so many winters and indeed his eightieth : summer, and by these arms he was safe even in that audience hall. : ''… nec ciuis erat qui libera posset'' : ''uerba animi proferre et uitam inpendere uero.'' : ''sic multas hiemes atque octogensima uidit'' : ''solstitia, his armis illa quoque tutus in aula.'' : (4.90-93)
Satire V: Patronizing Patronage : An eel awaits you - close relative of a long snake - : or maybe even a Tiber-fish spotted with gray blotches, : a home-born slave of the Embankment, fat from the gushing Cloaca Maxima : and accustomed to venture into the covered sewer beneath the center of the Suburra . : ''uos anguilla manet longae cognata colubrae'' : ''aut glaucis sparsus maculis Tiberinus et ipse'' : ''uernula riparum, pinguis torrente cloaca'' : ''et solitus mediae cryptam penetrare Suburae.'' : (5.103-106) 173 lines. The narrative frame of this poem is a dinner party where many potential dysfunctions in the ideal of the Patron-client Relationship are put on display. Rather than being a performance of faux-equality, the patron (Virro as in 9.35) emphasizes the superiority of himself and his peers (''amici'') over his clients (''viles amici'') by offering differing qualities of food and drink to each. Juvenal concludes with the observation that the clients who put up with this treatment deserve it.
Book II Satire VI: Death is Better than Marriage See Also: Satire VI : ... I am aware : of whatever counsels you old friends warn, : i.e. "throw the bold and lock her in.” But who is going to guard the : guards themselves, who now keep silent the lapses of the loose : girl - paid off in the same coin? The common crime is keeps its silence. : A prudent wife looks ahead and starts with them. : ''... noui'' : ''consilia et ueteres quaecumque monetis amici,'' : '''pone seram, cohibe'. sed quis custodiet ipsos'' : ''custodes, qui nunc lasciuae furta puellae'' : ''hac mercede silent? crimen commune tacetur.'' : ''prospicit hoc prudens et a illis incipit uxor.'' : (6.O29-34) c. 695 lines. For the discussion and synopsis, see Satire VI . Book III Satire VII: ''Fortuna'' (or the Emperor) is the Best Patron : If the goddess '' Fortuna '' wants, from a mere teacher you will become Consul , : if the same want, a teacher will be created from a consul. : For what was Ventidius? What was Tullius ? Anything really : other than a comet and the marvelous power of hidden fate? : Kingdoms will be given to slaves, and a triumph to captives. : A really fortunate man, however, is even more rare than a white crow. : ''si Fortuna uolet, fies de rhetore consul;'' : ''si uolet haec eadem, fiet de consule rhetor.'' : ''Ventidius quid enim? quid Tullius? anne aliud quam'' : ''sidus et occulti miranda potentia fati?'' : ''seruis regna dabunt, captiuis fata triumphum.'' : ''felix ille tamen coruo quoque rarior albo.'' : (7.197-202) 243 lines. Juvenal returns to his theme of distorted economic values among the Roman elite – in this instance centered on their unwillingness to provide appropriate support for poets, lawyers, and teachers. It is the capricious whims of fate that determine the variables of a human life.
Satire VIII: True Nobility : Although your whole Atria display ancient Wax Portraits on : every side, excellence is the one and only nobility. : Go on and be a Paulus or Cossus or Drusus in your morals - : esteem this more important than the images of your ancestors. : ''tota licet ueteres exornent undique cerae'' : ''atria, nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus.'' : ''Paulus uel Cossus uel Drusus moribus esto,'' : ''hos ante effigies maiorum pone tuorum.'' : (8.19-22) 275 lines. The narrator takes issue with the idea that pedigree ought to be taken as evidence of a person’s worth.
Satire IX: Sucking up to your Patron is Hard Work : But, while you downplay some services and lie about others I've done, : what value do you put on the fact that - if I had not been handed over : as your dedicated client - your wife would still be a virgin. : uerum, ut dissimules, ut mittas cetera, quanto : metiris pretio quod, ni tibi deditus essem : deuotusque cliens, uxor tua uirgo maneret? : (9.70-72) 150 lines. This satire is in the form of a dialogue between the narrator and Naevolus – the disgruntled client of a pathic patron.
Book IV Satire X: Wrong Desire is the Source of Suffering : It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body. : Ask for a brave soul that lacks the fear of death, : which places the length of life last among nature’s blessings, : which is able to bear whatever kind of sufferings, : does not know anger, lusts for nothing and believes : the hardships and savage labors of Hercules better than : the satisfactions, feasts, and feather bed of an Eastern king. : : I will reveal what you are able to give yourself; : For certain, the one footpath of a tranquil life lies through virtue. : ''orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.'' : ''fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem,'' : ''qui spatium uitae extremum inter munera ponat'' : ''naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores,'' : ''nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil et potiores'' : ''Herculis aerumnas credat saeuosque labores'' : ''et uenere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli.'' : : ''monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare; semita certe'' : ''tranquillae per uirtutem patet unica uitae.'' : (10.356-64) 366 lines. The theme of this poem encompasses the myriad objects of prayer unwisely sought from the gods: wealth, power, beauty, children, long life, et cetera. The narrator argues that each of these is a false Good; each desired thing is shown to be not good in itself, but only good so long as other factors do not intervene. This satire is the source of the well-known phrase "mens sana in corpore sano" (a healthy mind in a healthy body), which appears in the passage above. It is also the source of the phrase " Panem Et Circenses " (bread and circuses) - the only remaining cares of a Roman populace which has given up its birthright of political freedom (10.81).
Satire XI: Dinner and a Moral : Our humble home does not take up such trifles. Another man will hear : the clacks of castanets along with words that a naked slave standing : for sale in a smelly brothel would refrain from; another man will enjoy : obscene voices and every art of lust, a man : who wets his inlaid floor of Lacedaemonian marbles with spit-out wine : ... : Our dinner party today will provide other amusements. : The author of the Iliad will sing, and the poems of Vergil : that make the supremacy of Homer doubtful. : What does is matter by what voice such verses are read? : ''non capit has nugas humilis domus. audiat ille'' : ''testarum crepitus cum uerbis, nudum olido stans'' : ''fornice mancipium quibus abstinet, ille fruatur'' : ''uocibus obscenis omnique libidinis arte,'' : ''qui Lacedaemonium pytismate lubricat orbem;'' : ... : ''nostra dabunt alios hodie conuiuia ludos:'' : ''conditor Iliados cantabitur atque Maronis'' : ''altisoni dubiam facientia carmina palmam.'' : ''quid refert, tales uersus qua uoce legantur?'' : (11.171-182) 208 lines. The main themes of this poem are self-awareness and moderation. The poem explicitly mentions one apothem γνῶθι σεαυτόν (know thyself) from the temple of Apollo at Delphi , while its theme calls to mind another μηδέν ἄγαν (nothing in excess). The subject, in this instance, is the role of food and the ''cena'' (formal dinner) in Roman society. The narrator contrasts the ruinous spending habits of gourmands with the moderation of a simple meal of home-grown foods in the manner of the mythical ancient Romans.
Satire XII: True Friendship : Lest these actions seem suspicious to you Corvinus, this Catullus : for whose return I am placing so much on these altars, has : three little heirs. It would be fun to wait for someone to : pay out a sick (and in fact closing its eyes) hen for a friend : so “sterile;” truly, this is too much expense, and : no quail ever died for a father of children. If rich and childless : Gallitta and Pacius begin to feel a chill, the entire portico : is clothed with vows posted-up in the prescribed way : there are those who would promise a one-hundred-cow sacrifice : only because there are no elephants for sale here, ... : ''neu suspecta tibi sint haec, Coruine, Catullus,'' : ''pro cuius reditu tot pono altaria, paruos'' : ''tres habet heredes. libet expectare quis aegram'' : ''et claudentem oculos gallinam inpendat amico'' : ''tam sterili; uerum haec nimia est inpensa, coturnix'' : ''nulla umquam pro patre cadet. sentire calorem'' : ''si coepit locuples Gallitta et Pacius orbi,'' : ''legitime fixis uestitur tota libellis'' : ''porticus, existunt qui promittant hecatomben,'' : ''quatenus hic non sunt nec uenales elephanti,'' : (12.93-102) 130 lines. The narrator describes to his addressee Corvinus the sacrificial vows that he has made for the salvation of his friend Catullus from shipwreck. These vows are to the primary Roman gods - Jupiter , Juno , and Minerva (the Capitoline Triad )- but other shipwrecked sailors are said to make offerings to Isis . In the passage quoted above, the narrator asserts that his sacrifices are not to curry favor or gain an inheritance, common reasons for making vows among those who would not hesitate to sacrifice their slaves or even children if it would bring them an inheritance.
Book V (incomplete) Satire XIII: Don’t Obsess over Liars and Crooks : What you suffer: they’re the misfortunes of many, at this point well-known, : and indeed trite, and drawn from the middle of Fortuna’s deck. : Let’s lay off the excessive groaning. Pain should not be : sharper than what’s called for, nor greater than the damage. : You are hardly able to endure the least tiny particle of ills : however slight – burning in your frothing guts, because a friend : did not return to you a things deposited with him under oath? : Does a man who has already left sixty years behind his back : – a man born when Fonteius was consul - get stupefied by events like these? : Or have you advanced nothing to the better from so much experience. : ''quae pateris: casus multis hic cognitus ac iam'' : ''tritus et e medio fortunae ductus aceruo.' : ''ponamus nimios gemitus. flagrantior aequo'' : ''non debet dolor esse uiri nec uolnere maior.'' : ''tu quamuis leuium minimam exiguamque malorum'' : ''particulam uix ferre potes spumantibus ardens'' : ''uisceribus, sacrum tibi quod non reddat amicus'' : ''depositum? stupet haec qui iam post terga reliquit'' : ''sexaginta annos Fonteio consule natus?'' : ''an nihil in melius tot rerum proficis usu?'' : (13.9-18) 249 lines. This poem is a dissuasion from excessive rage and the desire for revenge when one is defrauded. The narrator recommends a philosophical moderation and the perspective that comes from realizing that there are many things worse than financial loss.
Satire XIV: Avarice is not a Family Value : Although youths imitate the other vices of their own free will, : they are commanded to practice only avarice unwillingly. : For this vice deceives with the appearance and shape of a virtue, : since it has a grim bearing and a severe surface and exterior, : the miser is lauded as if he were frugal without hesitation - : as if he were a sparing man, and a sure guardian of his own possessions, : better than if the Serpent of the Hesperides or the one : from the Black Sea guarded those same fortunes. : ''sponte tamen iuuenes imitantur cetera, solam'' : ''inuiti quoque auaritiam exercere iubentur.'' : ''fallit enim uitium specie uirtutis et umbra,'' : ''cum sit triste habitu uultuque et ueste seuerum,'' : ''nec dubie tamquam frugi laudetur auarus,'' : ''tamquam parcus homo et rerum tutela suarum'' : ''certa magis quam si fortunas seruet easdem'' : ''Hesperidum serpens aut Ponticus. ...'' : (14.107-14) 331 lines. The narrator stresses that children most readily learn all forms of vice from their parents. Avarice must actually be taught since it runs counter to nature. This vice is particularly pernicious, since it has the appearance of a virtue and is the source of a myriad of crimes and cruelties.
Satire XV: People without Compassion are Worse than Animals : But these days there is greater concord among snakes. : A savage beast spares another with similar spots. : When did a stronger lion rip the life from another lion? : In what forest did a wild boar perish under the tusks of larger boar? : ''sed iam serpentum maior concordia. parcit'' : ''cognatis maculis similis fera. quando leoni'' : ''fortior eripuit uitam leo? quo nemore umquam'' : ''expirauit aper maioris dentibus apri'' : (15.159-162) 174 lines. The narrator discusses the centrality of compassion for other people to the preservation of civilization. While severe circumstances have at times called for desperate measures to preserve life, even the most savage tribes have refrained from cannibalism. We were given minds to allow us to live together in mutual assistance and security. Without limits on rage against our enemies, we are worse than animals.
Satire XVI: Soldiers are above the Law : Let’s deal with the common benefits first off, : among which by no means the least is that no civilian would dare : to strike you – and what’s more – if he gets struck, he denies it : and isn’t willing to show his knocked-out teeth to the judge either. : ''commoda tractemus primum communia, quorum'' : ''haut minimum illud erit, ne te pulsare togatus'' : ''audeat, immo, etsi pulsetur, dissimulet nec'' : ''audeat excussos praetori ostendere dentes'' : (16.7-10)< 60 lines preserved. The primary theme of the preserved lines is the advantages of soldiers over mere citizens.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SATIRES Although Juvenal has enjoyed a wide readership across the centuries, the content and tone of the ''Satires'' have become increasingly problematic and unpalatable with the rise of the Feminist Movement and greater awareness (and rejection) of Intolerance in all forms. While Juvenal's mode of satire has been noted from antiquity for its wrathful scorn towards all representatives of social deviance, scholars such as W.S. Anderson and later S.M. Braund have suggested that this apparent anger is merely a rhetorical ''persona'' (mask) taken up by the author to critique the unbalanced anger aroused by the sort of elitism, sexism, and xenophobia that the ''Satires'' seem replete with at first glance. According to Braund (1988 p. 25), Satire 7 – the opening poem of Book III - represents a “break” with satires one through six – Books I and II – where Juvenal relinquishes the ''indignatio'' of the “angry ''persona''” in favor of the irony of a “much more rational and intelligent” ''persona''. The aphoristic, absolutist character of the text lends itself all too easily to indiscriminate application of critiques originally directed at literary exemplars of particular vices. In the interest of keeping the text from total eclipse by such concerns, it is vital that the text and its author be distinguished from the manner in which they have commonly been read. As has been noted by the literary theorist Stanley Fish , the reading of a text is as much a product of the reader’s beliefs and prejudices as of those contained within the text. The misogyny and other forms of hatred perceived in the text are as attributable to what readers across the centuries have brought to the reading as to what Juvenal intended. It would be an equally grave error to read the ''Satires'' as a literal account of normal Roman life and thought in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE, just as it would be an error to give credence to every slander recorded in Tacitus or Suetonius against the members of prior Imperial Dynasties . Literary texts, especially those of a highly rhetorical nature as are the ''Satires'', cannot be profitably read as if they were entries in an encyclopedia. Themes similar to those of the ''Satires'' are present in authors spanning the period of the late Roman Republic and early Empire ranging from Cicero and Catullus to Martial and Tacitus ; similarly, the stylistics of Juvenal’s text fall within the range of post-Augustan literature as represented by Persius , Statius , and Petronius . Amy Richlin identifies oratorical invective as a source for both satire and epigram. 1992 p. 127. Finally, it is necessary to realize that the conceptual system present within the text is most representative of only a portion of the Roman population; the ''Satires'' do not speak clearly for the concerns of women, immigrants, slaves, children, or even men who deviated from the elite, educated audience intended by the author. With these caveats held in mind, it is possible to approach the ''Satires'' as a crucial source for the culture of early Imperial Rome. In addition to a wealth of incidental information on everything from diet to décor, the ''Satires'' of Juvenal reveal what is most essential to a civilization: the issues at the core of the Roman identity. Rather than revealing the myriad potential answers spanning the diverse Roman population, Juvenal reveals the questions pivotal to Roman society. NOTES REFERENCES
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